Monday, November 12, 2012

Preyer Prizes to Levine-Gronningsater, Zhang

We're pleased to announce the winners of this year's Kathryn T. Preyer award.

Named after the late Kathryn T. Preyer, a distinguished
historian of the law of early America known for her generosity to young
legal historians, the program of Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars is designed to
help legal historians at the beginning of their careers. At the annual
meeting of the Society two younger legal historians designated Kathryn T.
Preyer Scholars will present what would normally be their first papers to
the Society. (Whether there is a Kathryn T. Preyer Memorial Panel at the
meeting, as there was this year, or whether the Preyer Scholars present
their papers as part of other panel depends on the subject-matter of the
winning papers and on what is on the rest of the program.) The generosity
of Professor Preyer's friends and family has enabled the Society to offer a
small honorarium to the Preyer Scholars and to reimburse, in some measure
or entirely, their costs of attending the meeting. The competition for Preyer Scholars is organized
by the Society's Kathryn
T. Preyer Memorial Committee.*

In 2012, the Preyer Memorial Committee**
chose two Preyer Scholars:

Sarah Levine-Gronningsater (Ph.D. Candidate, University of Chicago), for her paper “Poor Law, Slave Law, God’s Law: Quaker Antislavery and the Early Modern Origins of New York’s Gradual Emancipation”

Taisu Zhang (Ph.D. Candidate, Yale University; Visiting Assistant Professor, Duke University School of Law), for his paper “Kinship Networks, Social Status and the Creation of Property Rights in Early Modern China and England”

The
Preyer Scholars presented their papers at a special panel, chaired
by Gautham Rao (American University). William Wiecek (Syracuse
University) and James C. Oldham (Georgetown University) served as
commentators.
* Language is from the ASLH website.